The mob wins in France

It's France, so,flambe' please.

Terrible, selfish French Deplorables. Disgusting. Macron made a typically French mistake: appeasement.

This type just wants cheap petrol so they can spend their euros on fags instead.

Macron = Obama

Structural reform to the French economy is impossible. They should just embrace decline. Kind of like us (America).

Weimar gave us Isherwood which gave us Cabaret which gave us LIZA. So decline not all bad.

I love you r1

The NY Times article said severe poverty is widespread in France and people are literally starving. I can understand why they don't want to pay a tax on fuel.

Let them eat croissants 🥐

That you're even asking that, OP, is proof that you do not understand human nature and, therefore, politics. People act on self-interest, not the interests of some abstract collective, like "humanity". This is especially the case when economic issues are at play. When people feel that their ability to feed themselves is imperiled, evolution kicks in makes people throw away all moral concerns, including long-term survival.

Maybe if MO(c)RON hadn't already undermined the quality of life of the working class with his cuts, and not cut taxes for the rich, people would be more tolerant to this new tax. That they couldn't stand it is proof that they had endured enough austerity and impoverishment under Macron.

Marine called, r10–she wants you to know you’ve licked her liver flaps to the point of scabrousness.

The Extreme Right is behind the violence. Fact.

He heard them now.

R10 is correct. Austerity for the poor and middle class is their plan here, too. Don't think for one minute you're not going to pay for their trickle down piss shows.

Calling those programs we contribute real money to 'entitlements' was their first push. The shove is coming.

[quote]Macron made a typically French mistake: appeasement.

France has a long history of appeasement, especialy when it comes to hate-filled, authoritarian ideologies.

[quote]Austerity for the poor and middle class is their plan here, too.

Because that worked soooo well in the UK.

Austerity doesn’t help the economy if people can’t afford to spend money on food, shelter and heating. Of course Macon’s wife will not be one of the starving elderly.

Exactly R15. Just more right wing trickle down bullshit that doesn't work.

You people are full of shit. There’s been no austerity measures for the lower classes. It’s just the same old stagnant economy that’s been in place for decades.

This are extreme right talking points and you know it.

a sophisticated french is the more sophisticated person in the world. But a french deplorable can make an american deplorable look like simone de Beauvoir

I hope our own Democratic party learns the lesson and doesn't try this crap. When you have enough to throw an extra few billion at the world's largest and most bloated military, you can't go screaming poor mouth to people who are struggling or starving.

The question then becomes: just what is that military protecting? It's not a way of life being enjoyed by everyone....and it's not the pursuit of happiness.

Thanks for your cogent and thoughtful input, R17. Austerity for the neo-cons is just more of the same old and yes, we know it. You allow an economy to stagnate and that, mon ami, is the same thing. More profit for the bankers and finance guys who funded the campaign and to hell with minimum wage or lowering the tax burden on the middle or lower classes.

Whatever did happen to the 'middle class tax cut' they were looking at here? Yeah....right.....

Voilà, that noble savage: Le Beauf!

Like the so-called 'deplorables' who inhabit the Rust and dying farm belts of America, the French 'mob' has been politically left leaning for a very long time. If they're reacting to anything, it's the corruption of an elite that refuses to see or hear the results of their economic manipulations.

And like the deplorables in the States, the French mob is being exploited by selfish, far right interests who use anger and fear to gain a foothold. It won't end well, for any of those players, when those folks wake up and smell the baquettes.

why can't they tax the 1% over there?

Macron ditched the "wealth tax" and then proceeded to put a tax on everybody, which includes the poor, with the fuel tax. WHY??

I think he's taken other measures which help the rich (and fuck the poor). He's a neo-liberal, was a stock broker or something? Actually I don't know what he was - maybe worked as a "banker" in one of the la-di-da banks over there. And I think he was finance minister under the last prez, Hollande or whoever. (I really should look all this up but I'm lazy - sorry)

R19 is the poster who always talks about neoconservatives but doesn’t understand the definition.

Yes, that's what I always talk about, R24, incessantly and over coffee with anti-vaxxers and others of my Bernie bot ilk. You've outed me in my ignorance and I stand ashamed and alone.

Here's a young black woman (yellow vest protest side) arguing with an old white guy (Macron's side) on France24 Debate yesterday. There's a 40 minute version somewhere but this is an excerpt from the longer debate - the protest side vs the rich old men side.

"I hope our own Democratic party learns the lesson and doesn't try this crap."

They already are here in NYC. Both DiBlasio and Cuomo negotiated billions in tax breaks for Amazon to sit its fat ass in Queens. Meanwhile, we are looking at another subway fare hike to $3 a ride and the system is FUCKING FALLING APART. Every day several lines have massive delays. A few times a month practically the whole system will go on the fritz during rush hour, turning everyone's morning commute into Planes, Trains and Automobiles just to get to work. Weekends forget about it. Numerous lines are shutdown and the trains that run are on severely restricted service.

The fare hike won't nearly cover the shortfall in the MTA budget...which will mean even shittier service and more than likely another fare hike in the not-too-distant future.

Blows my mind that these two shithead DINOs are playing this game so nakedly. Say what you will about Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, but she is the only one calling this out. Not sure it will do any good, however.

I didn't ask a question, R10.

I really hate De Blasio! He won't even say sorry for the snow fuck up! Take some fucking responsibility! He wants to be president of USA so bad. NO!!!

Same in the UK. That Theresa May took money from poor to give to rich via tax reform.

I wouldn't be surprised if Steve Bannon learned a little bit of French to do organize some riots in France. The alt-right did say they want to go international.

Sorry, to organize some riots in France.

The mob wins in France? How unique!

Russiapublicans behind this.

Macron knows. Look how the Europeans regard the approach of Putin (as clueless Trump grins like a moron). Even Melania looks down.

[quote]France has a long history of appeasement, especialy when it comes to hate-filled, authoritarian ideologies.

Oh please, r14, spare us. The French fought the invasion by the Nazis in 1940. Trust me, if Germany were on America's border in 1940, we would have been "appeasers" as well.

The first time American troops faced the German war machine, they had their asses handed to them, at the Battle of Kasserine Pass, in 1942 -- THREE YEARS after the blitzkrieg was first used in Poland. We had THREE FUCKING YEARS to learn their combat methods and react to them, but we didn't. The French had only eight months before their country was invaded.

... ^^^

[quote]The French fought the invasion by the Nazis in 1940. Trust me, if Germany were on America's border in 1940

The French fought for a whole SIX WEEKS. The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto fought the Nazis for YEARS. The French got on quite well with the Nazis, a direct result of their policy of appeasing authoritarian ideologies, which continues to this day.

[quote]There’s been no austerity measures for the lower classes

Huh?

The French elite have often misunderstood the French working class. It's probably why they protest so regularly. Qu'ils mangent de la brioche!

Macron is like OP: he doesn't know what makes people tick. These riots are just the pay of his smug ignorance.

r37

The worst part was after Hitler was done dancing in Paris, Petain was all like "OK Monsieur Hitler, we'll round up all our French Jews," and Hitler was like, "No, don't we have too many here already." But Petain was like, "No, no we lost, you take our Jews and do with them what you want. We also have homosexuals and gypsies to give you too."

R19 the military has commitments to protect allies around the globe while still being able to help out at home. It's a hugely complex matter than your statement makes it out to be.

R23, the wealth tax actually died under Hollande around 2012.

Trump is now twice as popular as Macron.

Dec 4 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe's approval ratings hit new lows as the "yellow vest" protests gathered pace, according to an Ifop-Fiducial poll for Paris Match and Sud Radio published on Tuesday.

Macron's approval rating fell to 23 percent in the poll conducted late last week, down six points on the previous month. Philippe's rating fell 10 points to 26 percent.

The president's score matches the low charted by his predecessor Francois Hollande in late 2013, according to Paris Match. Hollande was then considered to be the least popular leader in modern French history.

R43 They're blaming Macron for the wealth tax being abandoned (on French news program) - maybe he was finance minister then (under Hollande).

R45, Macron is being blamed most immediately for the climate change tax on fuel and secondarily for a host of other things. He should just convert the abandoned wealth tax into a surcharge on the transportation choices that the wealthy can afford, like business/first class airfare, expensive sports cars, etc.

Possibly, r45. It was repealed in 2014 after 2-years. But I would think that it would be more a Hollande failure as he was president at the time.

I don’t care how favorable the taxes could be for businesses...would you want to deal with the French as employees? They aren’t broken like Americans, who will bend over for any pathetic wage and a chance at even a shitty health plan.

The French are extremely productive workers, but their feistiness has got to contribute to the lack of international investment.

[quote]The French are extremely productive workers

Hardly.

Just shows Macaron is a total fraud... Only interested in power, not what's good for the fools who elected him.

Productivity calculation methods vary, but the French are always competitive in any list.

C’est work/life balance, peut être?

Yeah, r51. I've worked for a french bank, a french brokerage firm and a french money management company. I stand by my response at r49 and add that hardly would be an understatement.

Oh hey guess what? A bunch of those "yellow jacket" protesters were documented speaking to each other in Russian.

Crazy, huh?

I’m with r49. Obstructionist lazy cunts is how the French branch of my old employers was routinely described.

EMMANUEL Macron’s approval rating has crashed below 20 per cent today as he predicts more “major violence” across France this weekend.

Despite a humiliating government U-turn on proposed green taxes on fuels, the Yellow Vests sense they can achieve more.

Now disgruntled groups from Left and Right, including students and emergency workers, have joined their campaign.

This has ensured that Mr Macron’s approval rating – his lowest since he took office in 2017 - is now just 18 per cent, according to a new YouGov poll.

It was conducted the day before Saturday’s riots, with 1006 people making up a representative sample of the French population quizzed.

The 18 per cent figure represents a drop of three points and the third consecutive decline in three months.

--------------

And a couple weeks ago he wanted an EU Army to protect him from America.

Vive le Mob!

Cou'dn't happen to a more deserving President. Well, except one.

Paris is burning and France is on the verge of a literal revolution and in the USA, all the news media outlets are ignoring the story.

[quote]all the news media outlets are ignoring the story.

So how do you know about it, R58?

All the right wing idiots opposed to climate change action, know this. Brown and black people will win. The effects of climate change will be 10 fold in the Southern Hemisphere. There will be a mass exodus of people flooding your lily white countries once you've poisoned their air and raise the temperature to 150 degrees. Climate change action is the only way to truly preserve your way of life

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Macron is a globalist, so he could couldn't care less for the French people. Let them eat macarons!

Do the French Government ever not surrender in the face of adversity?

r60 what's really happening here is that the 1% and the strivers in the UMC are dumping all the remedies onto the rest of us. This is happening throughout the West, not just France.

What they're doing in Canada is a fucking crime. I say that as someone who supports climate change initiatives, but not at the expense of the destruction of the middle and working classes. The Federal government is adding insult to injury with a cap and trade, carbon tax system that will add derivative options. Of course, there will be no accompanying regulatory oversight.

Need I remind all the 'surrender monkey' posters here that America destroyed its democracy after 9/11 after what was effectively a series of quick bombing raids. Even 50+ years ago, your government compromised itself and escalated the Cold War because you couldn't find a good enough pilot willing to eat a cyanide capsule for his country, and you think your general fucking public would be handling an invasion, or any major civil unrest? Are you fucking serious?

It is now a proven fact that these riots in France , and also in cities throughout Europe have been the result of the Extreme Right exploiting divisions political and social. They are a result of Putin's long range strategy to divide and weaken Europe. This has been verified and the fake social media accounts, and fake news sites have been tracked back to Moscow. It is mystifying to me how people are still falling for this. In any country, any society there are issues. Some are political, or social or economic. But the way in which they a re being exploited is part of an extremist agenda, and we're smart enough to recognize Extreme Right propaganda and tactics when we see them. I'm almost certain that, at some point we will also discover some of these agitators have been paid.

R60 is a charlatan who needs a one-way trip to the nearest guillotine.

[quote]They are a result of Putin's long range strategy to divide and weaken Europe.

They are the result of a generation of greedy thieving money-men who sacrifice children in Satanic rituals. The French are tired of the Rothschilds and their evil minions.

R67 DL is tired of bigoted scum.

R67 Erna the fetid Nazi cunt returns from DL Troll embargo.

R65 see the problem I see is that the Left never see themselves as why people support more Right Wing politics. They are eternally the victim and people just voted for Bigots because secretly they were bigots 80 years ago. Now they can say it out loud.

Never at any point has this been caused by the Left. Because they are always morally good. So continues the destruction of the West. Hitler is always with us but Stalin was misunderstood or wasn’t really Socialist and so more and more people move away from the Left , life’s victims, unable to understand any reason why people go WTF. It is always the Fascists.

And another voter leaves the Left.

Good for the yellow vests. France isn't going to take an American style pounding from elites.

The masses are starving in France.

France is a disgusting place. It has been romanticized by Hollywood. In reality it is dirty, outdated, rude, and boring. The place is literally falling apart, shit all over, rats, no air conditioning, and it’s has been for decades. It’s living in a time warp and not in a sweet, rustic way. It’s just unstable. You won’t find Parisians anymore either. I’d visit Spain before France again.

Pollution is not a western problem, with the exception of the USA. China, India, and the burning of the rain forests are far greater contributors to pollution. The EU did not even make it on to the latest list of the worst countries. Frances contribution is nearly non existent. The US, Japan, Russia, China, and India are the ones who need to make drastic changes. I don't blame the French for being mad. It is like putting a high tax on butter in France because the US has an obesity problem.

But, yeah, the Russians are behind the yellow vests.

The French don't need Russians to teach them how to protest, dummy.

R74, you don't need to teach an alcoholic to drink, but someone can certainly encourage him to go on a bender.

R73, we are more fucked even than USA. The diesel smog in our cities makes LA seem like paradise.

R68, it is not bigotry but the normal person's instinctual hatred of real evil that fuels the hatred of the Rothschilds.

Macron serves the interests of the elite, not the peasants who are beneath him. He is the God Jupiter, after all.

He's also a sick puppy, having sex with that hag.

Some of the protesters in France are wearing Yellow Vests with a picture on the back of scissors penetrating the All-Seeing Eyeball of Horus that sits atop a pyramid, as seen on the US one dollar bill.

This is a message that says Down With Globalism, Down With the New World Order, Down With the Rothschilds, and Down With Macron, the Rothschild stooge.

The protests are not about gas prices.The French are tired of having their nation and its future stolen away from them by the globalist cabal.

R72 Shit all over ? Where did you go to see that ? and AC ? Please, places where it actually gets hot in the summer have it, they just aren't blasting it. Little uncomfort will not kill you ! One of the only true thing you said was about Hollywood romanticizing France, it's actually painful seeing it in movies !

On topic: Those who have been yellow vests from the beginning have no issue with ecology they just CANNOT pay for it. Macron is not doing good but it was either that or a far right president so ...

r80 So what? You let him slide? Fuck him.

R72. Visited Paris for a week and thinks he knows France.

The yellow vests are a good example how to do protest, Americans. You should have been doing this every weekend when you first had facts against Trump. He would be gone by now.

Some of you think that it can’t be both things: absurd levels of income inequality AND Russian active measures.

The French don't need Russians to organise them in collective bargaining and rioting. They protest, all the time.

It would be like saying a bunch of unruly sports fans in Philadelphia were infiltrated by the Kremlin.

The French have always known how to do protest. Effectively.

Indeed!

I don’t think anyone has said that Russians have organized this; they can’t organize shit. They throw everything at your wall in hopes that something sticks.

They seek to inflame existing cracks in society, and Uncle Vlad needs Macron distracted from the upcoming EU elections.

God, I wish Theresa May would throw herself on the Brexit sword and take it to vote, in part to spite Putin.

At least in France, their bread and circuses are baguettes and Cirque 'de Soleil.

Jealous, les bitches?

Op, global warming in some distant future doesn’t mean shit to people that want to live their lives now. You gloom and doom climate hawks are just as bad as preachers talking about fire and brimstone.

If global warming is going to happen then it will happen. Our grandchildren will have to use science to adjust their lives accordingly. Less people on this earth will also help.

r87 To the best of my knowledge, Cirque du Soleil is Canadian.

Putin is smiling and also behind this, non? Da?

Putin faced demonstrations for proposing a cut to pensions. The Russian government backed off.

The issue in France is rising taxes and falling living standard.

R60

150°? Is that during the summer, or winter?

You are a fantastic example of the ignorance that has allowed billionaires to use “global warming” to fleece us.

Early winter temperatures in the northern hemisphere are significantly below the trendline. If that continues for the next three months, it will be one of the coldest winters in modern history. How does that fit with your narrative of carbon dioxide causing global warming?

The mental contortions you will have to undertake in trying to explain this “anomaly” will be excruciating!

Some of the replies have been enlightning. Certains ont des connaissances, la plupart sont fatiguants.

The gilet jaunes riots are composed of a wildly diverse set of French people who see the history and identity of France being erased.

It merely coalesced around an unpopular tax.

Do not confuse cause and effect, and always look at unpopular explanations. The expression of rage at the loss of French identity by protestors is coming from all political stripes.

The heavy and regressive tax burden is a huge factor, this was just the spark that lit the wildfire.

...Above is basically a reminder, meaning that the Nomenklatura lives in its own cocoon and has no clue about the everyday life of their average citizen (let alone elsewhere in the world). Also, meaning Nomenklatura has no idea how to go about improving what they do not know needs improvement, and by how much at the minimum – so that the public is calmed down… France today is exactly where it was half a century, year upon year, when its ambitious leader, General Charles De Gaulle, had to resign following similar street activities and violence. The big question is, does the parallel end there, or we should look into the popular rage against Louis XVI, or Nicholas II…

The revolt by “Gilets Jaunes” has scored big, merely by the fact that Nomenklatura has given in. We will see if this truly popular, spontaneous, ex-politics, ex-ideology movement (a real “we the people”) will evolve further, now or after being calmed down, but in my mind it did already mark the beginning of the French revolution of 21st century…

And that is not merely my own fantasy: among several observers who commented on the national TV the two or three most competent and most experienced ones called the protesters’ spokespersons “Trumpists.” It was basically to denote Donald Trump’s revolutionary attitude (paraphrased), “My people’s interest first,” in defiance to the Deep state’s line, which his predecessors duly followed, cheered by a servile united front of media-and-legislative-branch that today is carrying out an unprecedented anti-Presidential campaign. We, the European dissidents, have explained why Donald Trump should be regarded as the initiator and first executor of the American revolution of 21st century. The primary feature of his revolutionary portfolio, which resonates to the French protesters is his patriotism – the “Gilets Jaunes” complained that their plight has been totally neglected for years while the incoming immigrants are treated more generously (implicitly, at their expense; implicitly, if EU policy is defied and the flow of immigrants stopped, there will be more money for “own folk”). And it was Emmanuel Macron, this immature man whom they voted in (instead of “nationalist” Marine Le Pen) as President, who recently spoke on behalf of the EU about how the Europeans are not in favor of (US President’s) nationalism. They are certainly “patriots” but not “nationalists,” you see? So now the people on the street seem to be better acquainted with the fact that these two are synonymous of each other, and that “nationalism” is just being charged with a negative connotation by those who need to peddle someone’s propaganda. And they are proud to be “Trumpists” – that is, French patriots and nationalists at the same time – with demands that they be paid attention to, including by disregarding European directives that are depriving them from funding in order to fund more and more immigrants… Macron did not mention even once EU, its policies, the directives, the common goals, the warm welcome to any new immigrants till perpetuity…

The cracks in the European Union are becoming more and more – and wider as well.

R87 Pedant

Why do Labour voters fetishize gilded cages, R96?

Is it the fear that someone, somewhere is having fun without government approval?

The EU was a great idea on paper. That's where it should have stayed. Now it's too late.

The purpose of the EU is to have the nation states so intertwined economically that going to war would be unthinkable. It was a means of preventing Germany, France and the UK their centuries long history of invasions.

To a great extent, it worked and works. Western Europe has not seen this long and widespread a period of peace ever, really.

[quote]On topic: Those who have been yellow vests from the beginning have no issue with ecology they just CANNOT pay for it.

Exactly. No one is against rich people recycling and driving electric cars and whatever else they do in between rides on their private planes. People are tired of the rich forcing poor people to bear the burden for the various policies.

R99 It was to constrain Germany, owing to their penchant for starting wars. It had nothing to do with constraining France or the UK.

And it's highly debatable that the EEC/EC/EU has been responsible for European peace, given firstly that most of the developed world has also experienced a period of relative peace in the post WW2 years without the aid of a political union, and secondly that the two most recent European conflicts (Bosnia and Ukraine) were exasperated by the EC/EU's poor decision making.

Is R51 implying the Brits are layabouts?😅 Quelle surprise!

We win again!

R60 fantasized wildly there. Don't play this game. You never win. You know if that happened lily whites and yellows will blast off into space colonies leaving your brown/black asses in the dust😅, dreamer.

I’ll be back tomorrow, r94, just to F&F your racist, science-denying ass.

R104 is a bit...touched?

[R64] said: "Even 50+ years ago, your government compromised itself and escalated the Cold War because you couldn't find a good enough pilot willing to eat a cyanide capsule for his country"

Could someone tell me what incident this is referring to?

Ukraine's oppression by Russia has nothing to do with the EU and everything to do with Russian imperialism.

Germany no longer has to invade its neighbors for dominance and control. It accomplishes the same thing via the EU.

R64, What is happening in Canada?

R106, wondering the same thing. It's a deranged statement.

R64 is referring to the Gary Powers incident, R106

Interesting graph, R102. The drop in the US lead in productivity corresponds with Reagan.

r87 Cirque du Soleil originated in Quebec.

Who cares, R113, it was a joke. You and the pedant at R90 need to fuck.